Sunday, November 4, 2007

Atonement: The Contender I Hate to Love


If you follow Oscar Obsession then you have probably read my review of "Atonement". I hailed it as the best film of the year (a spot that now belongs to "No Country for Old Men" and "Juno") and raved and raved and raved. Since then, I've tried to find faults. The only fault I can find is that Keira Knightley was not as good as I said she was. That being said, she was good. But, I could not, for the life of me, find anything wrong with the film besides her. That infuriated me. This is because I HATE "Atonement" as a contender but I LOVE the film. It's such a juggernaut that it will most likely take Best Picture from other, possibly more worthy, candidates. Do I want "Atonement" to win Best Picture? No. Why?

1. Because it's beautiful and epic.
2. Because it's unbelievably baity.
3. Because it's bound to sweep awards season
4. Because it's huge and sweeping
5. Because you sit in the theatre for the entire closing credits because you're in awe.
6. Because the acting is great.
...and so many more reasons.

Oh, "Atonement", you were magnificent and yet I hate you so. I'll be fine with it winning Best Score (undeniably good) and buckets of nominations but...any win in the Top 8 categories will be so frustrating. Hopefully the Academy will do the same and reward a superior project Best Picture. However, that's unlikely considering "The English Patient"'s recent domination over the Oscars.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well not for supporting! I'm sure that more than one Briony will get nominated and cause split votes leaving SAactress open...but then Cate Blanchett will win. And if James McAvoy doesn't have enough screen time and Keira Knightly is overshadowed by everyone else then we should see other ppl win LActor and LActress. Depp and Carter? or Depp and Page? or Depp and Adams? (I can dream can't i?)

Anonymous said...

Oh, right. I did actually love Ronan's performance and I want her to win the Oscar.

Unknown said...

Great article, it just makes me want to see this movie even more

On a side note, I would like to congratulate Oscar Obsession on getting 3.5 stars out of 4 stars and being considered one of the best Academy Awards sites from The Oscar Igloo. Good work! (It could be old news but I just noticed it)

Anonymous said...

A real love/hate relationship. :)

Great article. James McAvoy may yet be the one to upset the two-horse race between DDL and Depp.